Tag: Cupcakes

Desserts/Pastries

Vanilla Cupcakes with Lemon Curd & Guava Buttercream Frosting

The Culinary Chronicles3 Comments

Confession: Sometimes when I’m testing out a new component to a recipe, I’ll use shortcuts in other areas. For example, when I thought of creating Vanilla Cupcakes with Lemon Curd & Guava Buttercream Frosting, I wanted to focus my time on getting the right flavor profile down for the Guava Buttercream and defaulted to using a packaged Lemon Curd from Trader Joe’s (which, incidentally, is delicious!). And although I love Lemon Curd and would have been able to find many uses for it, I didn’t want to whip up an entire batch for such a small amount. Trader Joe’s to the rescue!

The Guava Buttercream was inspired through one of my other ongoing projects—attempting to make the elusive Hawaiian Guava Chiffon Cake. And although I have been quite unsuccessful with that particular Island pastry, it has left my pantries well stocked with guava products such as jams, syrups and nectar. If you can’t find Guava concentrated Nectar (I used the Hawaiian Sun brand), you can use regular Guava juice—though I suspect the flavor won’t pack as much punch.

As for the cuppies, I turned to one of my standard vanilla cupcakes to offer a subtle but tasty canvas for the Guava Buttercream. It also paired nicely with the lemon curd though I think the buttecream had such a nice tropical flavor that it could stand on its own. Perhaps a Mango Cupcake with Guava Buttercream sprinkled with Li Hing powder? Mmmmm!!!

And with that, here’s my question to you all….

What type of cuppie do you think will pair well with a Guava Buttercream?

CHEERS! 🙂

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Vanilla Cupcakes with Lemon Curd & Guava Buttercream Frosting
Makes 12 Cupcakes

Ingredients:

Vanilla Cupcakes
1½ Cups All Purpose Flour
1½ Teaspoon Baking Powder
¼ Teaspoon Salt
3 Large Eggs (room temperature)
1 Cup Vanilla Sugar* (or plain granulated sugar)
½ Cup Unsalted Butter (room temperature)
1 Tablespoon Good Quality Vanilla Extract
¼ Cup Milk
¾ Cup Lemon Curd

*Vanilla Sugar
Take the scraped Vanilla Bean Pod and bury into one cup of granulated sugar. Cover for a minimum of 5 days, stirring every other day.

Guava Buttercream Frosting
3 to 4 Cups Confectioners Sugar (sifted)
½ Cup Unsalted butter (room temperature)
½ Cup Guava Jam
2-3 Tablespoons Guava Concentrated Nectar

Preheat oven to 350°degrees and place paper liners in pans. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt.

In a standing mixer, beat the eggs and sugar together until light and creamy for about 2 minutes. Add the butter, and vanilla extract. Mix until well incorporated.  Add milk and mix until smooth. Slowly incorporate dry ingredients until well blended.

Fill each lined cup 2/3 full with cupcake batter. Bake for approximately 18-20 minutes, rotating halfway between baking time. Cupcakes are done when a toothpick inserted in the center comes clean. Cool completely in pans on top of a wire rack.

While cupcakes are cooling, prepare Guava Buttercream. In a large mixer bowl, whip the butter for several minutes until very light and fluffy. Slowly add the confectioners sugar until the butter becomes thicker and stiff. Add Guava Jam and Nectar and whip until combined. If needed, add a few more spoons of confectioners sugar until desired consistency is reached.

When cupcakes are thoroughly cooled, fill a piping bag with a small tip and the Lemon Curd. Carefully insert the tip into the cupcake and slowly fill each cake with desired amount. You can also cut a small hole in the cupcake using a pairing knife and fill in with the lemon curd.

Fill another piping bag with the prepared Guava Buttercream. Frost and decorate the cupcakes.

ENJOY!

Desserts/Pastries

Red Velvet Cupcakes…Just in Time for the 4th of July!

The Culinary Chronicles7 Comments

Red Velvet Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

 

When the Cupcake Craze emerged, it resurrected the huge following of Red Velvet Cupcake goers. People just love them—and in fact, it’s my most requested cupcake.

There’s just something about that bright red color of the cake and mounds of frosting that really draw people in. I’m not sure if it’s more the flavor or the coloring that is the attraction—though I’m partial to the hue. Heck—I’m also the gal who can’t eat Mint Chip Ice Cream that isn’t the brightly colored green type! 🙂

Traditionally dyed with beet juice, Red Velvet Cake has come along way and is produced in variety of incarnations. Some prefer oil to butter, cake flour to all-purpose, buttermilk to regular milk, a ton of cocoa powder to a few spoonfuls……it can go on and on.  The particular version I gravitate towards uses a butter base in combination with sour cream. I find that this leaves the cake with a more rich and moist profile. I also love a deep intense color and tend to use more food coloring than others. This is also affected by the low amount of cocoa powder in this particular recipe. Whereas some prefer to use more cocoa powder, I am under the belief that it’s there just for a light flavoring.

These classic Red Velvet Cuppies have been a fav among my family and friends. Top them off with a few blueberries and they will be the perfect addition to any 4th of July Celebration!!!

Have a safe and HAPPY 4th of JULY!!!


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Red Velvet Cupcakes
Makes approximately 18 Regular Sized Cupcakes

Ingredients:

Batter
1¼ Cups All Purpose Flour
½ Teaspoon Baking Soda
¼ Teaspoon Salt
1½  Tablespoons High Quality Unsweetened Cocoa Powder
½ Cup Unsalted Butter, room temperature
1 Cup Granulated Sugar
2 Large Eggs, room temperature
½ Cup Sour Cream
½ Cup Lowfat Milk
1 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract
2-3 Tablespoons Red Food Color, depending on desired intensity of color

Cream Cheese Frosting
8 Ounces of Cream Cheese, room temperature
4 Tablespoons Unsalted Butter, room temperature
2-3 Cups Confectioner Sugar, varies due to preferred frosting consistency
1 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract

Preheat the oven to 350°degrees and place paper liners in pans.

In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.

In a standing mixer, beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy for about 3-4 minutes. Beat in eggs, one at a time. Add milk, sour cream, vanilla, and food color. Slowly incorporate dry ingredients until well blended.

Fill each lined cup 2/3 full. Bake for approximately 18-20 minutes, rotating halfway between baking time. Cupcakes are done when a toothpick inserted in the center comes clean. Cool completely in pans on top of a wire rack.

While cupcakes are baking, prepare the frosting. In an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together the cream cheese and butter until fluffy.  Add vanilla extract and gradually add in the confectioners’ sugar, a few tablespoons at a time. Continue adding sugar to desire consistency. Refrigerate for at least 10 minutes before use.

When cupcakes are thoroughly cooled either frost or pipe decorate swirls on top.

Enjoy!

Desserts/Pastries

“I’m a Big Boy” Cupcakes

The Culinary Chronicles6 Comments

Last month my friend Ashley put in a unique cupcake request to celebrate a momentous occasion in her eldest son’s life—Potty Training! In an effort to get him excited about this new phase in his life, she was throwing him a “Bye-Bye Diapers” celebration and wanted cuppies with some undies on them 🙂

I was intrigued and quickly accepted the challenge. Instead of worrying about cake flavors and frosting types (like I usually do when filling orders), I was consumed with how to best illustrate these whimsical cuppies and enlisted the help of the BF. Isaiah is quite artsy and always is able to create some beautiful work. And yes, I realize that I’m a lucky gal for dragging in the BF to not only decorate cupcakes but make BVDs!

For the cake, I settled on a simple Vanilla batter as I find that kids “J’s” age gravitate more to the classics–chocolate, vanilla, or strawberry. Amy Sedaris’ Vanilla Cupcakes were just the trick to a quick and tasty Vanilla cuppie. As for the frosting, kids typically like frosting better than the cake–and usually the sweeter the better! My standard quick-vanilla-butter cream-frosting was in order.

And finally, the decorations—which turned out to be the most difficult decision. I knew I would be happier with the overall look if I used Fondant for it’s smooth, clean lines and it would be much easier to cut shapes out of it. However, if you’re anything like me, I really am not a fan of the taste or texture of eating fondant. And if I don’t like it, I can’t expect the kiddies to either. After much deliberation, I settled on a diplomatic compromise. For the “flavor”, half the cupcakes would have a big mound of butter cream frosting and be topped with a “BVD” fondant  decoration. For the “look”, the other half of the cupcakes would be covered in all fondant.

The process with the fondant was actually quite fun! One just needs a bit of cornstarch to ensure it doesn’t stick while rolling it out and you need to be sure to store the unused fondant in airtight containers to prevent it from drying out. Isaiah and I got a pretty nice assembly line pumping them out, too. I’d primarily roll out the fondant and cut the “BVD” shapes and he would pipe the red accents using colored royal icing. For these cuppies, I used Martha Stewart’s Royal Icing recipe as it uses meringue powder instead of egg whites. This is particular nice since some folks are wary of using/eating raw eggs.

We were quite happy with the end result of our “I’m a Big Boy Cupcakes”.  It had a great playfulness from the bright colors we chose and of course, because of the “BVDs”. The Big Guy also seemed to enjoy them as he took a big whomping bite directly from the top–frosting, fondant, and all!

Just goes to show–No decoration is too silly. And in fact, the more silly–the better!!!

Wishing you tons of Luck, “J”! You’re a BIG BOY, now! 🙂

Cupcakes packed and ready to go!


“J” Approved 🙂 Pic courtesy of his proud, Mama.

Desserts/Pastries

Vanilla Bean Cupcakes filled with Dulce de Leche

The Culinary Chronicles24 Comments

After making the “Easy-Peasy Dulce de Leche” via my crock pot for the honey, I was set on using the ooey-gooey goodness in a cupcake for him, too. I chose a simple cake to compliment the sweet Dulce de Leche and made a quick butter cream frosting flavored with even more of the Dulce de Leche to top the cuppies. By making mini cuppies, per his preference, he could pop one in his mouth from time to time to enjoy without having to commit to a whole cupcake. But in the end, he had so many minis I should have just made a whole cake for him! Nonetheless, I was so pleased that he loved them.

I think what added to the overall product was my choice of boosting the vanilla flavor of the cake as I find that vanilla pairs so well with caramel. I adapted Elinor Klivan’s Vanilla Cupcake recipe by substituting the plain granulated sugar with some vanilla bean sugar I had made earlier in the week. I also added the seeds of an entire Tahitian vanilla bean pod into the batter. It was quite pretty to see all the speckles of the vanilla bean in the batter, too.

The bf and I were VERY happy with the end results of these cuppies and I can’t wait to make them again! If you or if you know of someone who loves all things vanilla (or caramel-like), try out these cuppies and let me know if you liked them as much as we did!

Check out all those pretty speckles of vanilla bean

Mini-cuppies hot out of the oven

Using a #13 Wilton Open Star Tip, fill the mini cupcakes with Dulce de Leche.

Happy minis full of Dulce de Leche

Using a #17 Wilton Open Star Tip, pipe a decorative pattern with the frosting. I sprinkled some pearl nonpareil candies on top of a few, too.

Inside peek of a cuppie.

I made one full sized cupcake since I had a little more batter left over at the end. I had fun piping all these stars on top…. 🙂

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Vanilla Bean Cupcakes filled with Dulce de Leche

Ingredients:

Vanilla Bean Cupcakes (Adapted from Elinor Klivans)
1 ¼ Cups All Purpose Flour
½ Teaspoon Baking Powder
¼ Teaspoon Baking Soda
¼ Teaspoon Salt
2 Large Eggs (room temperature)
1 Cup Vanilla Sugar*
½ Cup Unsalted Butter (room temperature)
1 Tablespoon Good Quality Vanilla Extract
Seeds from 1 Vanilla Bean Pod
½ Cup Sour Cream
*Dulce de Leche (see previous post)

*Vanilla Sugar
Take the scraped Vanilla Bean Pod and bury into one cup of granulated sugar. Cover for a minimum of 5 days, stirring every other day.

Dulce de Leche Buttercream Frosting
3 to 4 Cups Confectioners Sugar (sifted)
½ Cup Unsalted butter (room temperature)
2 to 3 Tablespoons Dulce de Leche

Preheat the oven to 350°degrees and place paper liners in pans.

In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

In a standing mixer, beat the eggs and sugar together until light and creamy for about 2 minutes. Add the butter, vanilla bean seeds, and vanilla extract. Mix until well incorporated. Slowly incorporate dry ingredients until well blended. Fold in sour cream until smooth and well incorporated.

Fill each lined cup ½ to 2/3 full. Bake for approximately 10-12 minutes (for mini cupcakes), rotating halfway between baking time. Cupcakes are done when a toothpick inserted in the center comes clean. Cool completely in pans on top of a wire rack.

While cupcakes are cooling, prepare frosting. In a large mixer bowl, whip the butter for several minutes until very light and fluffy. Slowly add the confectioners sugar until the butter becomes thicker and stiff. Add the Dulce de Leche and whip until combined. If needed, add a few more spoons of confectioners sugar until desired consistency is reached.

When cupcakes are thoroughly cooled, fill a piping bag with a small tip and the Dulce de Leche. Carefully insert the tip into the cupcake and slowly fill each cake with desired amount.

Fill another piping bag with the prepared Dulce de Leche frosting. Frost and decorate the cupcakes.

ENJOY!

Desserts/Pastries

Happy St. Paddy’s Day: Guinness Chocolate Cupcakes w/ Baileys Ganache

The Culinary Chronicles13 Comments

Happy St. Patrick’s Day Friends!

It’s true, I’m not of Irish descent..…but this Vietnamese Gal considers herself an equal-holiday opportunist and jumps at the chance for all festivities. And who couldn’t use a bit more luck in their lives? 🙂

So when a friend had suggested making Guinness cupcakes awhile ago—I thought I would take a spin with them for this particular holiday. Plus, some of my favorite foodie bloggers have been reviving this tasty treat—and who am I not to trust their judgment? 🙂

After much research, I settled on Smitten Kitchen’s “Chocolate Whiskey and Beer Cupcakes” recipe as I liked the idea of the ganache filling. I substituted Baileys for the Irish Whiskey in the ganache since I had none on hand and didn’t want to pick up a small bottle for the few teaspoons. (Though, I’m sure I could have found some type of use for it!)

The results? P.D.G.—Pretty Darn Good! Seriously! I was a bit concerned that the Guinness would leave a bitter taste to the cuppie—as it usually leaves that flavor on my palette from just a sip. But the other ingredients must have mellowed that flavor out and instead, left a beautifully moist and flavorful end product. The ganache was fabulous too—and quite easy to make. Extremely rich and “truffle-like” in texture and flavor.My only critique was the frosting, although I may be bias as I typically prefer a cream cheese base. Although the Baileys was a great addition, I found the frosting too sweet–even by cutting the confectioner sugar amount in half. Next time, I’ll stick with the cream cheese base 🙂

Also, at the next go-around, I may add Baileys Mint Chocolate Cream liquor to the ganache and some mint extract to the cakes for a different spin. Mint Chocolate is one of my favorite combos 🙂

Overall–quite a knockout cupcake. Rest assured, I’ll definitely make this one again!!!

So to all my peeps out there –Wishing you a very Happy St. Patrick’s Day filled with luck and tasty cupcakes!

Measure out 1 Cup of Guinness–or your preferred Stout Beer

Bring to a simmer with 1 Cup of Unsalted Butter

Whisk in 3/4 Cup of Cocoa Powder

Line your cupcake pans with paper cups. I chose these cute green-striped greaseproof ones to add the festivities 🙂

Fill liners 3/4 filled with cupcake batter

Bake at 350 degrees. Mine took 19 minutes and were cooled on racks for 30 minutes.

Time to prep the ganache!

Chop up the 8 ounces of chocolate while waiting for the cream to simmer

Of course I added a bit of Baileys to the ganache 🙂

I used a cookie cutter to create a little “bed” for the ganache 🙂

I enlisted the help of a pairing knife to pop out the stubborn pieces 🙂

Using a Wilton #12 Round Tip, pipe ganache in the centers

Happy little Baileys Ganache filled cuppies

Pipe or Ice the cuppies with your Baileys Buttercream

I used a Wilton #4B Star tip for my swirls and added little shamrock sprinkles for extra luck 🙂

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Guinness Chocolate Cupcakes with Baileys Ganache
Adapted from Smitten Kitchen
Makes 20 to 24 cupcakes

Ingredients:

Guinness Chocolate Cupcakes
1 Cup Guinness Stout
1 Cup Unsalted Butter
¾ Cup Unsweetened Cocoa Powder (I used Ghirardelli)
2 Cups All Purpose Flour
2 Cups Granulated Sugar
1½  Teaspoons Baking Soda
¾ Teaspoon Salt
2 Large Eggs
⅔ Cup Sour Cream

Ganache Filling
8 ounces Bittersweet Chocolate (I used Godiva)
⅔ Cup Heavy Cream
2 Tablespoons Butter, room temperature
1 to 2 Teaspoons Baileys Cream (optional)

Baileys Frosting
3 to 4 Cups Confections Sugar
½ Cup Unsalted butter, at room temperature
3 to 4 Tablespoons Baileys
1 Teaspoon of Green Food Coloring (optional)
**I doubled this recipe to make enough to pipe large swirls on the cupcakes.

Preheat oven to 350°F. Line 24 cupcake cups with liners.

Make the cupcakes: Put the butter with the beer in a sauce pan over medium heat and bring to a simmer. Whisk in cocoa powder until smooth. Cool slightly.

In a large bowl, whisk the flour, sugar, baking soda and salt. In a mixer bowl, beat the eggs and the sour cream together. Add the beer/butter/cocoa mixture and beat to combine. Add the flour mixture and beat briefly just to combine. Using a rubber spatula, fold the batter until completely combined, making sure to incorporate little pockets of flour on the bottom so that the batter is of equal consistency everywhere.

Fill the cupcake liners about 2/3 of the way if you want flatter cupcakes and 3/4 if you want domed. Bake for about 17 minutes, or until a toothpick or a slim knife inserted into the middle of a cupcake comes out clean. Cool completely to room temperature.

Make the filling: Chop the chocolate and transfer it to a heatproof bowl. Heat the cream until simmering and pour it over the chocolate. Let it sit for one minute and then stir until smooth. Add the butter and whiskey (if you’re using it) and stir until combined.

Fill the cupcakes: Let the ganache cool until thick but still soft enough to be piped. Using your 1-inch round cookie cutter or an apple corer, cut the centers out of the cooled cupcakes. I went about half to 2/3 of the way down and used a small knife to help me extract the centers. Put the ganache into a piping bag with a wide tip and fill the holes in each cupcake to the top.

Make the frosting: In a large mixer bowl, whip the butter for several minutes until very light and fluffy. Slowly add the powdered sugar, letting it incorporate, until the butter becomes thicker and stiff (you will know when this happens). Slowly drizzle the Bailey’s (or milk or cream or a combination thereof) and whip until combined. Add green food coloring to desired hue. Ice and decorate the cupcakes.

Note: Smitten Kitchen gave a great tip about slowly adding the confectioner sugar to have a less grainy texture. It also required less sugar in the end. By sifting the sugar and using Smitten Kitchen’s suggestion, I ended up only using 4 cups of confectioner sugar for a double batch. That’s half than what was listed—and even then I felt it was a bit too sweet.

Sneak peak inside the cuppies. The Baileys Ganache was really yummy and tasted like Truffles!

Desserts/Pastries

Coconut Cupcakes with Coconut Cream Cheese Frosting

The Culinary Chronicles20 Comments

 

I’ve been on a serious coconut kick lately…..I don’t know. Maybe it’s my inner-self willing for the warm weather of the tropics during this chilly winter. 🙂

I decided to give Martha Stewart’s recipe for Coconut Cupcakes a spin. She actually has two posted on her website but I opted for this particular one since it didn’t require egg white/meringue. I’m lazy sometimes….guilty as charged 🙂  I did slightly tweak her recipe a bit to add more coconut flavor and ended up frosting it with my Coconut Cream Cheese Frosting.

After I had pulled them out of the oven and set them on racks to cool, I became somewhat alarmed as a few of the sides of the cakes began pulling from their liners. Eh…oh well. That’s what frosting is for, right? But after one bite–I was SOLD! I LOVED this cupcake. Somewhat dense in texture (perhaps from the coconut milk?) and infused with wonderful coconut flavor! Since I opted for a simple frost versus piping the frosting, it was not the least bit over sweet. YUMMY, YUMMY, YUMMY!

This one will definitely be kept in my favorites folder. I hope you enjoy it, too! 🙂

 

The Coconut Milk that I used

Light layer of frosting after the cupcakes have thoroughly cooled. No fancy piping this time 🙂

Dipping the cupcakes in the Shredded Coconut

Make sure to thoroughly cover the cupcakes

And VOILA! Delicious Coconut Cupcakes 🙂

 

 

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Coconut Cupcakes with Coconut Cream Cheese Frosting
Adapted from Martha Stewart
Makes 20 Cupcakes

Ingredients:

Cupcakes
1¾ Cups all-purpose flour
2 Teaspoons baking powder
½ Teaspoon salt
½ Cup packed sweetened shredded coconut
6 Ounces (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1 1/3 Cups sugar
2 Large eggs plus 2 large egg whites
¾  Cup unsweetened coconut milk
1½ Teaspoons vanilla extra
1½ Teaspoons coconut extract (Martha uses vanilla extract only)

Coconut Cream Cheese Frosting
16 Ounces of Cream Cheese at room temperature
8 Tablespoons Unsalted Butter at room temperature
5 -6 Cups Confectioner Sugar (varies due to preferred frosting consistency)
1 Tablespoon Coconut Extract
1 Tablespoon Unsweetened Coconut Milk
*2 Cups Sweetened Shredded Coconut to top cupcakes

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line standard muffin tins with paper liners. Whisk dry ingredients in a large bowl. Add shredded coconut to flour mixture. Cream butter and sugar with a mixer until light and fluffy. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating after each addition.

Reduce speed to low. Mix any remaining wet ingredients in a bowl if needed. Add dry ingredients to butter mixture in 3 additions, alternating with wet ingredients and ending with dry. Scrape sides of bowl. Divide batter among muffin cups, filling each 2/3 full.

Bake cupcakes until testers inserted into centers come out clean, about 20 minutes. Let cool in tins on wire racks.

While cupcakes are baking, prepare the frosting. In an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together the cream cheese and butter until fluffy.  Add coconut extract, coconut milk and then gradually add in the confectioners’ sugar, ½ cup at a time. Continue adding sugar to desire consistency. (I used only 5 cups this time since I didn’t need the frosting to be as firm as when I pipe it). Refrigerate for at least 10 minutes before use.

Frost cupcakes with Coconut Cream Cheese Frosting. Liberally cover each cake with the shredded sweetened coconut.

ENJOY!

They are JUST as tasty in Mini Cupcakes form, too 🙂

Desserts/Pastries · Miscellaneous

Spiced Maple Pecan Cupcakes (Guest Blogger)

The Culinary Chronicles14 Comments

**This entry has been submitted to The Culinary Chronicles through our Guest Blogger Contest. **

Submitted by: Carol L.

It’s a poorly-kept secret that I don’t have very much of a sweet tooth, despite the amount of baking that I do.  I much prefer more spiced or lighter desserts like carrot cake, apple cobbler, and tiramisu.  That is why I LOVE the fall and winter season — that’s when the spiced desserts come out to play!  From pumpkin pie to gingerbread, these are the desserts that I especially enjoy making and devouring!

I took the opportunity during this season to concoct a recipe for a Spiced Maple Pecan Cupcake with Maple Cream Cheese Frosting.  I started with my normal vanilla cupcake recipe, and substituted the white sugar with brown sugar instead, being sure to check the internet that this wouldn’t ruin the texture or form of my cupcake.  Baking is such a chemical science, that you risk an imploded or exploded result if you substitute ingredients incorrectly!  I then added some of my favorite fall and winter spices for baking: cinnamon, nutmeg, clove, ginger, and allspice… similar to what you would put into a pumpkin recipe.

All right, we’ve taken care of the “spiced” part of Spiced Maple Pecan, now for the “maple” part!  Instead of vanilla, I wanted to use a maple flavoring.  Googling around, I found that most maple recipes required a few cups of pure Grade B maple syrup.  I was a little concerned as to what 1-3 cups of liquid would do to my cupcakes, and I had heard anecdotes that when you use the syrup, you don’t even get that familiar maple flavor that most people are used to.  I contemplated a bit, but then decided I didn’t feel like dealing with failed cupcakes that day.  Therefore, I opted to use the imitation maple flavoring by McCormick’s for my cupcakes and frosting.  Amusingly enough, I later had a conversation with Nam herself, and she also prefers the imitation maple flavoring over the maple syrup!

Now for the best part… candied pecans!  Making candied pecans is pretty easy, and it makes a HUGE difference when using candied pecans instead of regular pecans.  It is everyone’s favorite part!  The hardest thing about making candied pecans is trying not to eat them all yourself, and running out before they even make it into the cupcakes.  I incorporated these babies into the cupcakes themselves and also sprinkled them on top of the maple cream cheese frosting.

The resulting cupcake was a hit!  Everyone loved them, and I even got a comment that, “He normally hates cupcakes, but he loves these!”  And I thought, “That’s because they’re not too sweet, and spiced instead!”  I hope you try this recipe out and love them too!

Spiced Maple Pecan Cupcakes by Carol L.
Spiced Maple Pecan Cupcakes by Carol L.

Spiced Maple Pecan Cupcakes
Ingredients:
• 1 cup cake flour
• 1/2 cup all purpose flour
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 3 tsp baking powder
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon grated nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
• 1/4 teaspoon ground clove
• 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup whole milk
• 2 teaspoons imitation maple flavoring
• 3/4 cup candied pecans (recipe below)

1. Combine flours, sugar, baking powder, salt, and spices; stir with a whisk until combined. Add butter and mix with an eletric mixer.
2. In a large glass measuring cup, whisk together eggs, milk, and maple flavoring.
3. With mixer on medium speed, add wet ingredients in 3 parts. Mix until combined, but do not overbeat.
4. Dust the candied pecans with some flour (this keeps them from sinking to the bottom of the cupcakes).  Mix in the candied pecans.
5. Divide among cupcake liners. Bake at 325° until toothpick comes out clean.

Maple Cream Cheese Frosting
Ingredients:
• 1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 8 ounces cream cheese, softened
• Approximately 2-4 cups powdered sugar, sifted
• 1 teaspoon imitation maple flavoring

1. Beat butter vigorously with an electric mixer. Scrape the bowl and add the cream cheese. Beat until combined.
2. Add 2 cups of powdered sugar and beat until smooth.
3. Add the maple flavoring and mix.
4. Continue to add powdered sugar until desired consistency for piping.

Candied Pecans
Ingredients:
• 1 cup chopped pecans
• 1 cup sugar

1.  In a pan, mix white sugar and pecan pieces.  Turn on the heat to medium, and slowly stir with wooden chopsticks or spoon until the sugar starts to melt.
2.  When the mixture becomes a nice brown color, remove from heat, and continue to stir until cooled. Careful, it can go from golden brown to burnt surprisingly quickly!  If you don’t continue to stir until cool, it will all harden together in one big clump.
3. Once cooled, crumble and break apart any pecans that are stuck together.

*Reminder: You, too, can be a Guest Blogger of The Culinary Chronicles! Submit all entries to theculinarychronicles@gmail.com and be eligible to win an AWESOME Foodie Prize!

Desserts/Pastries

Gingerbread-Pear Cupcakes

The Culinary Chronicles2 Comments

I’ve already confessed by Gingerbread obsession. :) So, when a recent holiday feast left us with some delicious Poached Pear leftovers, I seized the opportunity to kick up a favorite holiday goodie.

I chose to adapt Martha Stewart’s recipe for Gingerbread Cupcakes. Her version has such a wonderful spicy flavor with a moist cake that I knew would be the perfect match to the pears. However, since her recipe is scaled for “jumbo cupcakes”, I needed to tweak the measurements a bit.

The end results were absolutely delicious—-personally, my favorite cupcake of the year. :) And for those who prefer to scale down the sweet factor, swap out my cream cheese frosting for a light dusting of confectioner sugar.

These “Cuppies” will definitely be added to my Holiday Baking Rotation—though maybe next time I’ll use a Molasses Cream Cheese Frosting as opposed to the standard Cream Cheese. After all, it is the holidays!

Enjoy!!!

Gingerbread-Pear Cupcakes © Photo rights reserved.
Sneak Peak of the Pears © Photo rights reserved.
Poached Pears © Photo rights reserved.

 

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Gingerbread-Pear Cupcakes
Makes 12 Cupcakes
The Gingerbread Cupcake Batter was adapted from Martha Stewart’s “Gingerbread Cupcake Recipe” to accommodate a half batch and regular cupcake size.

Ingredients:

Cupcake Batter
1 Teaspoons Baking Soda
1¼ Cups All-Purpose Flour
1 Teaspoons Ground Ginger
¾ Teaspoons Ground Cinnamon
¼ Teaspoon Ground Cloves
¼ Teaspoon Ground Nutmeg
¼ Teaspoon Salt
1 Teaspoon Baking Powder
4 Tablespoons Unsalted Butter at room temperature
½ Cup Packed Dark-Brown Sugar
½ Cup Unsulphered Molasses
1 Large Egg, room temperature, lightly beaten
1½ Diced Poached Pears

Poached Pears
3 Bosc Pears (peeled, cored, halved)
1 Whole Cinnamon Stick
5-6 Allspice Corns
5-6 Whole Cloves
1 Vanilla Bean, split with seeds scraped
½ Cup Granulated Sugar
3 Cups White Wine

Cream Cheese Frosting
8 Ounces of Cream Cheese at room temperature
4 Tablespoons Unsalted Butter at room temperature
2½ -3 Cups Confectioner Sugar (varies due to preferred frosting consistency)
1 Teaspoon Pure Vanilla Extract

Heat oven to 350 degrees.

In a medium sized saucepan, combine ingredients for poached pears with the exception of the pears. Stir over medium heat until the sugar is dissolved. Add pears. Bring liquid to a rolling boil and lower to a light simmer. Cook pears until fork tender. Remove from heat and thoroughly cool. Once cooled, remove pears from poaching liquid and pat dry. Dice pears in small cubes.

In another small saucepan, bring ½ cup water to a boil. In a bowl, combine boiling water and baking soda; set aside. In a large bowl, sift together flour, ground spices, salt, and baking powder; set aside. In an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter until light. Beat in the brown sugar until fluffy, 1 to 2 minutes. Beat in the molasses, baking-soda mixture, and flour mixture. Beat in the egg. Carefully fold in the diced pears.

Fill prepared cupcake pans lined with paper cups three-quarters full, making sure that the batter is divided evenly. Bake cupcakes until a toothpick inserted in the center of them comes out clean, about 20 minutes. Let cupcakes cool in the pans on wire racks.

While cupcakes are baking, prepare the frosting. In an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together the cream cheese and butter until fluffy.  Add vanilla and then gradually add in the confectioners’ sugar, ½ cup at a time. Continue adding sugar to desire consistency. (I typically lean towards the full 3 cups for a firmer consistency to pipe the frosting). Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes before use.

Once cupcakes have completely cooled, frost with prepared Cream Cheese frosting. Cupcakes can be stored up to three days in the refrigerator in an airtight container.

Note: Remaining Poached Pears can serve as a light and delicious dessert. Serve with a zabaglione or whipped cream. When storing in the refrigerator, keep pears in poaching liquid to add to the flavor and moistness.